Contemporary Lampshades

The drum lamp shade shown on this antique candelabra lamp is about 60 years old yet
it is called a contemporary style.

Customers often request these and generally refers to styles currently in vogue and often seen in recent design magazines and
other current home lighting publications and advertisements.

Definition: Marked by characteristics of the present period,
immediately relevant to the present, a certain perspective of the modern time
period

Ironically, most contemporary lamp shades have their origin many
decades ago. The most popular ones today are
the drum and shallow drum, both which originated in the
early 1900's. Are they contemporary, retro or vintage styles ? The answer is
yes, yes and yes.

So the question remains as to which shade styles are not contemporary ? The
answer is very few because of the popular
eclectic style of decorating which incorporates various cultures, periods, methods, composed of elements drawn from various sources.

There are numerous sub categories of contemporary lamp shades which I may
address in a future article. These include, Funky, Industrial and other
specialty styles that are growing in popularity.